We have compiled some of our favorite films and TV series, new and old, comfort shows or tension-inducing thrillers, that feature powerful women. Politicians, police chiefs, orchestra conductors, fight clubs, […]
Film
INDIE SCREEN
Passions Swell in Provincetown During High Tide
In Marco Calvani’s new film, the town is faithfully brought to life
At long last, Provincetown has gotten the stylish and thoughtful cinematic representation it deserves. You can forget the trashy and formulaic law-and-order series Hightown and chuck the mean-spirited and woolly […]
FILMMAKER ON THE EDGE
Lonely Are the Brave
Andrew Haigh, director of All of Us Strangers, is coming to Provincetown
Queer cinema has been an important presence at the Provincetown International Film Festival since it began in 1999. Several past Filmmaker on the Edge award winners, such as Christine Vachon […]
FILM FESTIVAL
Joel Kim Booster Knows How the World Works
The winner of PIFF’s Next Wave Award takes superficiality seriously
Joel Kim Booster was squatting on the corner of Carver and Bradford in Provincetown, wearing just a jockstrap. He held his phone to his ear. He had just been at […]
FILM FESTIVAL
Ahmed Ibrahim’s Work Refuses Categorization
The director’s A Chair for Her will premiere at the Provincetown Film Festival
Under the pergola of his friend’s house on Bangs Street in Provincetown, filmmaker Ahmed Ibrahim sits hunched over his MacBook typing an email to his manager. Bo, a border collie-black […]
FILM FESTIVAL PREVIEW
A Time for Shots in the Dark
Provincetown gears up for a big-screen celebration
These days, in the world of “theatrical” movies — films screened in theaters — surviving and thriving are challenging at best. That’s certainly true for the Provincetown International Film Festival, […]
INDIE SCREEN
The Pitfalls of Growing Up
Two recent films explore the hurdles facing lost young souls
Southern California teenagers can be a shallow bunch, especially in the movies that are made about them. From the beginnings of the postwar “youth” film — Rebel Without a Cause […]
TURNING POINT
Tearing Meaning From a ‘River of Grass’
Sasha Wortzel traces the shoreline from the Everglades to Provincetown
Sasha Wortzel says that her current work in film, photography, and printmaking is a form of kriah, the Hebrew word for “tearing” that refers to the Jewish practice of rending […]
ICONS
Looking at Candy Darling
A new biography reveals the loneliness of the Warhol superstar
Candy Darling’s face could not be forgotten. It glued itself to the minds of the auteurs of late ’60s New York, her beauty playing out ad infinitum in their songs, […]
INDIE SCREEN
Craziness in the Eye of the Moviegoer
In three new films, protagonists face a world stacked against them
It was an inspired choice when the Provincetown International Film Festival’s gave Julio Torres, the writer-director-star of a fanciful new comedy, Problemista, one of its Next Wave awards last June. […]
INDIE SCREEN
‘Barbenheimer’ Comes to the Academy Awards
How will the Oscars treat the movies that gave Hollywood back its mojo?
When Barbie and Oppenheimer, two big-budget Hollywood films, opened in theaters on the same day, July 21, 2023, they merged into a cultural phenomenon known by the portmanteau “Barbenheimer.” Finally, […]
INDIE SCREEN
Oscar Gets an International Itch
Three subtitled films are up for Best Picture
Making a film about the Holocaust is always problematic. How do you create something that properly represents or explains an atrocity so enormous it defies comprehension? The Nazis systematically exterminated […]
TELEVISION
The Curse Tells Unnerving Truths
The show on Paramount Plus paints a brutal portrait of two newlywed gentrifiers
The Curse, the latest wild-card creation from director Nathan Fielder now streaming on Paramount Plus, is a show about the two worst people in the world: newlyweds Whitney and Asher […]
INDIE SCREEN
The Truths and Untruths of Writers and Movies
In three films, their messages echo in surprising ways
Much of the efforts of the postwar civil rights and Black Power movements focused on restoring dignity to the Black male, who had been emasculated by slavery and the subsequent […]
CELEBRATIONS
An Encyclopedic Mind for People
Jill Stauffer, the first executive director of the Provincetown Commons, will retire in February
After four years as the first executive director of the Provincetown Commons, Jill Stauffer is retiring, set to leave the organization in late February. “She is so hard-working,” says Rebecca […]
